GRADE approach
Research Methods
Definition. GRADE is a system for rating the certainty of evidence and the strength of recommendations in systematic reviews and guidelines.
Explanation
Guyatt and colleagues described GRADE as an emerging consensus that rates evidence as high, moderate, low or very low certainty (Guyatt et al., 2008). Its logic has been adapted to environmental health through the Navigation Guide (Woodruff & Sutton, 2011).
Related concepts
Clinical practice guideline Systematic review Evidence-based medicine Risk of bias
Read on The Health Topics
- The Limits Of Explicit Criteria: An Epistemic-Tension Analysis of Donabedian’s 1981 Text, a Reverse Reading Through AGREE–GRADE–NICE, and a Counterfactual Interpretation for the Machine-Learning Era
- Bridging Clinical and Environmental Health Through Evidence-Based Medicine
References
Guyatt, G. H., Oxman, A. D., Vist, G. E., Kunz, R., Falck-Ytter, Y., Alonso-Coello, P., & Schünemann, H. J. (2008). GRADE: An emerging consensus on rating quality of evidence and strength of recommendations. BMJ, 336(7650), 924–926. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.39489.470347.AD
Woodruff, T. J., Sutton, P., & The Navigation Guide Work Group. (2011). An Evidence-Based Medicine Methodology To Bridge The Gap Between Clinical And Environmental Health Sciences. Health Affairs, 30 (5), 931–937. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2010.1219
Cite this entry: Kurutkan, M. N. (2026). GRADE approach. In The Health Topics glossary. https://healthtopic.org/glossary/grade-approach/